


King of Hearts

by kuriositet



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M, for this thing on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 07:42:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10485753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuriositet/pseuds/kuriositet
Summary: When you think the end is inevitable.





	

“So you’re leaving then?” Alec doesn’t look up, not sure what he’ll do if he looks at Magnus right now. He wants to both yell at him and kiss him at the same time. To cry and tell him he loves him. To plead and beg for him not to go even though he knows it’s futile. No, it’s better to keep his head down, eyes locked on the textbook he hasn’t been able to concentrate on all night.

“I have to,” Magnus says. “Alexander…”

“Why are you here then? Just go.” Alec’s eyes burn with tears that he is refusing to cry. Everything hurts, but he can’t let Magnus see that, can’t let him see how deep he got in under Alec’s skin. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, to be anything more than a fling. He had always known it wouldn’t be forever. 

“I wanted to say goodbye. I wish you felt differently.” The floor creaked as Magnus turned to leave. “My flight leaves at 1pm tomorrow, if you change your mind.”

Alec doesn’t know what Magnus means by that, but when he looks up Magnus is already gone. He only realizes that he’s crying when the tears hit the pages of the book in front of him and he slams it shut. His phone buzzes with yet another message from Izzy but he doesn’t want to talk to her, or anyone. 

He thinks about Magnus.

*

The moment he knew he was falling hard was a Tuesday afternoon and it was raining. They had spent the night in Magnus’s loft, most of it curled up and talking in soft whispers in bed. They slept through the morning and had breakfast at lunchtime. Alec made pancakes while Magnus washed off his smudged makeup from the day before, returning with a clean face but his hair still standing up in every direction.

Alec just had to kiss him.

The pancakes cooked a little unevenly as a result, but it didn’t matter. They could make more pancakes, but you could never know if you would have more moments like this one. Alec smoothed Magnus’s hair down while they kissed, pulling him close. His lips were already a little swollen from kissing all night, but kissing Magnus now was still like coming up for air, like he needed it to live. 

They ate the pancakes in between kisses, before returning to the bed together. Alec lay with this head on Magnus’s chest, listening both to the sound of his heartbeat and the sound of the rain softly hitting the window. 

He thought, I’ll remember this. Magnus said, “I didn’t know I could feel like this again.”

Alec thought, Neither did I.

*

The second date they went on was the one where they kissed the first time, sitting in the grass at Java Jones, drinking iced mocha lattes. Magnus skin glowed in the sun, and his lips felt cool against Alec’s hot mouth.

The sixth date, or rather, the sixth time they hung out, was the first time Alec spent the night. They spent most of the night cuddling on the sofa, watching stupid cat videos on Magnus’s iPad until they could barely keep their eyes open. When Alec finally got up to leave, Magnus caught his hand and gently tugged him back down. “Stay,” he whispered against Alec’s lips, and Alec never wanted to leave. 

Two days after that, Magnus asked, “Do you know who I am?”

Alec wanted to tell him no. To say that he had no idea, that he didn’t know why this could never last and be a real thing, to be more than a fling, more than a pause from Magnus’s real life. He did know though, because even though he wasn’t the kind of person who googled the people he dated, the same could not be said of his sister who had soon found out everything there was to know of Magnus Bane, the crown prince of some European country Alec had never even heard of. 

Alec answered with a question of his own, “Does it change anything?”

A month later came that rainy Tuesday afternoon. Two weeks after that Magnus first mentioned having to return home some day. It didn’t feel real though. It never did. 

*

Alec had had his heart broken before. In fact, it had been broken just a few months before he met Magnus. Magnus was like a fresh breath of air, and it didn’t take long before he could forget all about Raj. Thanks to Izzy he knew that Magnus had just been through a breakup as well, and that that’s probably why he had come to New York in the first place. They never talked about it though, the fact that they were technically each other’s rebounds, that that’s the reason their flame burned so hot, that it would never last.

They talked about other things. They talked about traveling the world, which Magnus had done, but Alec only dreamed of doing. Magnus promised to take him one day, and Alec wanted to believe him. They talked about their families, about Alec’s brothers and sister, about how Magnus’s mother had passed away when he was just a kid and how he felt like he barely knew his dad. The king, Alec though, but Magnus only rarely mentioned his heritage and the fact that he would one day have to step up and take the crown. 

It was so easy to pretend the day would never come.

Of course Magnus teased about Alec coming with him, to Europe, but it was unthinkable. What would Alec do in a strange place where he didn’t speak the language, where he didn’t have his family, where he didn’t know anything, and wouldn’t be anything but the prince’s boyfriend. 

“I can’t give up my life for you,” he said at some point.

“I might,” Magnus had said. “I think maybe I could give it up.”

*

Alec packs up his things, knowing he won’t get any more reading done tonight. He leaves the library in a hurry, heart aching at the thought of him seeing Magnus here for the very first time, looking sad but strong and absolutely stunning. 

He doesn’t go home because he doesn’t want to talk to anyone, and though Jace would probably leave him alone, the same can’t be said for Izzy who has been texting and calling him all day. He didn’t read or answer any of them since the first one though, the one that read, “Have you heard about Magnus’s dad? He died last night.”

His phone had been buzzing all day with texts and calls from Izzy, Jace and Magnus. Ha hadn’t answered any of them for one simple reason. He couldn’t say goodbye. 

Since he doesn’t want to go home, he goes somewhere else. There’s this diner where he used to go with Raj that’s open all night, and since he hasn’t been back there since their breakup, it does in no way remind him of Magnus. It doesn’t matter, because he can’t think of anything but Magnus anyway, but sitting there, drinking one cup after another of dark bitter coffee still passes the time.

People are coming in for breakfast by the time he leaves, thinking of how it’s only a few hours left before Magnus is gone, out of his life forever. Both Izzy and Jace have left for class and work respectively when Alec finally returns home, and he thinks he might just spend the entire day and week and maybe month, in bed. 

Something on the kitchen table gives him pause though. It’s a slip from the library, and the ink is worn but it still announces a due date that passed months ago, but Alec recognizes the title of the book. He also recognizes his own phone number scrawled in blue ink. Under it, in a much neater handwriting, it says, “I love you.”

He is so shocked, eyes swimming with tears again, that it takes him a few moments to even see the second piece of paper. It’s a ticket. From New York to Alicante.

He can’t breathe. 

He checks his phone and it’s almost eleven which means the light leaves in just two hours and there is no time to think. He finds the number for the most annoying person he knows and dials and doesn’t waste a single breath on pleasantries. “Simon, you need to drive me to the airport. Now.”

Simon answers in the affirmative and that he’ll be there in five minutes before rambling on about how he is so happy Alec asked him and how they can be friends now which is awesome because it is totally weird when your boyfriend’s brother acts like he hates you, “…even though I totally like, get it because I used to date Raj too but you’re not even with him anymore, you have a new boyfriend, so why should it even matter, right?”

“Yeah, whatever.” Alec hangs up and barely has time to dig out his passport before Simon texts him, letting him know he’s outside. He grabs his jacket and the ticket and library slip on the way out, pocketing them carefully before getting into Simon’s deathtrap of a van. 

Traffic is horrible and it feels like they’re never going to get to the airport in time. Simon won’t stop babbling about something Clary had said or done or seen on youtube and Alec keeps going between “Please stop talking,” and “Can you please go faster?” and “You’re going to kill us.”

He tries calling Magnus but only goes straight to voicemail, like his is turned off.

He touches the library slip in his pocket, and he can see Magnus in his head. Handsome, with his eyes rimmed with black and a goatee on his chin, black hair that stood up in spikes. He was frowning, standing in line at the reference desk where the librarian was busy helping an old lady, but his expression softened when he looked up and met Alec’s eyes. “Need some help?”

Alec can’t bear to check the time once they reach the airport, he just runs, leaving Simon with a “Thanks,” and “You’ll tell Izzy and Jace where I am, right?” 

Running through the airport is nothing like in it is in movies, where they just run and run and never have to stop and wait in line and show their tickets to be let through security and more security. He has to pause to check the gate number and notes the time: 12:43. He has no idea how far the gate was, or when they’ll close it. So he keeps running, running and running, probably looking like a maniac, but it doesn’t matter if he can just get there in time.

He rounds a corner and then Magnus is right there, looking just like Magnus always had. Somehow Alec expected him to look different now, more regal or something, like royalty, whatever that meant. But he looks the same as always, hair spiked and eye rimmed with black. If anything, Magnus looks surprised.

“Alexander.”

“I love you,” Alec says, and kisses him. “I love you, and I’m coming with you, for now.”

“I love you, too. We’ll figure something out,” Magnus says, pressing their foreheads together. 

Alec doesn’t know how long they stay that way, but he finally withdraws after becoming uncomfortably aware of the four bodyguards surrounding them. Then another thing hits him. “Wasn’t the flight supposed to have left by now?”

“Oh, it was delayed,” Magnus says with a shrug of his shoulders. “What took you so long?”

“I didn’t want to say goodbye,” he says honestly. “It just took me a while to realize it wasn’t goodbye.”

**Author's Note:**

> The chronology is a little weird but i hope it still makes sense. I just wrote this in one go and now i feel really dehydrated and tired. So you enjoy this, i will enjoy some water and my evening facial routine.
> 
> (disclaimer: i own nothing.)


End file.
